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# Reading and writhing
- URL: https://www.lorcandempsey.net/reading-and-writhing/
- Published: 2008-07-20T13:22:02.000Z
- Updated: 2020-10-28T09:22:25.000Z
- Author: Lorcan Dempsey
- Tags: Books, Systems

The Nicholas Carr article in the Atlantic – [Does Google make us stupid?](https://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200807/google?ref=lorcandempsey.net) – has generated a lot of commentary. Carr himself has just [pointed](https://www.roughtype.com/archives/2008/07/net%5Fbrain%5Fsyndr.php?ref=lorcandempsey.net) to an [Edge discussion](https://www.edge.org/discourse/carr%5Fgoogle.html?ref=lorcandempsey.net) and an [Encyclopedia Britannica discussion](https://www.britannica.com/blogs/2008/07/this-is-your-brain-this-is-your-brain-on-the-internetthe-nick-carr-thesis/?ref=lorcandempsey.net).  
I have commented on the perils of distraction a couple of times recently. Once when [talking about](https://blog.oclc.org/lorcand/archives/001638.html?ref=lorcandempsey.net) the ease with which you can be distracted by the ‘time-saving’ integration ability of the Flock browser (which I still use, I fear) and again when [pointing to](https://blog.oclc.org/lorcand/archives/001615.html?ref=lorcandempsey.net) Fred Stutzman’s attempts to resist the encroachment of the network into the productive time in which he codes, writes, creates.  
I have been interested in the discussion around the Carr article. The focus has tended to be on consumption, on the apparent difficulty people have with *immersive reading*.  
I confess I find this less of an issue than *immersive writing*. I still read books, maybe not as many as at some other times of my life. However, I am beginning to find it more difficult to write in a sustained way (no great harm there, I hear some of you say ;-). No doubt one reason for this is that I typically write on the laptop, which is also where I intersect with the network. Most of my sustained reading happens away from the network.  
Recently, when trying to write something I find that I am turning off the network on the laptop and relying on the Blackberry for email. At home this poses a difficulty though: despite living in a well covered area – inside the city of Columbus – I find that coverage fades if I am not near a window, and even then will sometimes give up. So even though I am not distracted by email, or by my RSS aggregator, or by looking at Facebook statuses go past, I end up walking around with the Blackberry trying to grab some network to synch up!